They scored record viewing figures with the return of their hugely popular sitcom, and now Still Game stars Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill are hoping BBC chiefs give them an early Christmas present — a new series.

Ford and Greg, who created, write and star in Scotland’s favourite comedy, achieved stunning viewing figures for the much-anticipated comeback of capers in Craiglang, with an audience share of more than 60 per cent.

Now they’ve made their list, checked it twice — and an eighth series of their show is on the top of their festive wishes.

Ford said: “We’re fairly excited about the prospect of coming back to TV, and we’ll hopefully know really soon if they’re going to recommission us. We’ve had a good response.”

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The series proved to be a hit with viewers across the UK, answering questions about how well the show would go down outwith Scotland on its network debut, and quelling any doubts its creators had.

He continued: “That itchy feeling you have when you bring something back — all the questions about whether people going to take to it, have we left it too long, have folk gone off us — all these things were put to bed.”

And the figures threw up some interesting viewing trends, domestically and further afield.

Ford said: “We did a lot of business in river towns, with people who have been brought up in the same sort of circumstances as Glaswegians, places like Liverpool and Birmingham and places like that.

Ford and Greg are hoping for an eighth series (Image: Daily Record)

“People from cities that were defined by boats and trade and that sort of thing. But that’s not a surprise to us, never a surprise, and that’s why we were so desperate to see it on the network. When we took it to Canada, they got it. These places share a similar sense of humour.

“It has to be a quicker, sharper darker sense of humour, because river towns are quick. And then you get to thinking: New York is a river town...”

Greg also identified some viewing trends closer to home — while watching the show at home with his family.

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He said: “I watched maybe about three or four of them at the time they were actually on TV. It was weird. My son came in for the first one and asked if he could bring some friends round to watch it because it was the first one in nine years.

“So he brought about six pals in and they all sat there on their phones. Then they had the nerve to say to me afterwards, ‘That was brilliant, absolutely fantastic.’ I don’t know how they were watching it. They seem to absorb it by osmosis.”

With the seventh series coming to an end last month, the comedy partners are busy preparing for a return to the scene of one of their biggest successes, with a new live show penned for Glasgow’s SSE Hydro.

Dubbed Still Game Live 2: Bon Voyage, the title of the new show poses a question about where the cast are off to, but the pair take an elusive stance when asked why.

Ford said: “Well, we had to call it something...”

Despite having one foot in the grave, Jack and Victor still have a spring in their step when they're heading to the Clansman (Image: Marc Turner/SECC)

Greg added: “Remember Michael Jackson’s show before he passed away was going to be calld ‘This is It’? Well, we were going to call the new Still Game show, ‘Is this it?’”

“Aye,” laughed Ford. “We’re going to moonwalk on to the stage, with one sparkly glove.”

Greg said: “Everybody knows everything about everything and it’s nice in these days when trailers come out a full year before the movie does, to say to folk, ‘You’ll just have to wait until February’.”

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The success of the last Hydro run, which stretched to an incredible 21 shows, led to the series to be recommissioned for TV, which, in turn, led to the Hydro return, which will see singer and actress Lorraine McIntosh join the cast along with Bruce Morton, the man responsible for introducing Ford and Greg at a party over two decades ago.

Ford said: “Shane Allen, (BBC’s head of comedy) came to see it at The Hydro and said right then that we should bring it back to television. That was in 2014. We hadn’t even had a conversation about doing that, then the time passed and up it came.

“The last time at the Hydro was our reunion show. This time round it will be a bona fide night out. Better than the last one.”

Normally on TV, Still Game's live stage show delighted audiences (Image: Sunday Mail/SECC)

More than anything, added Ford, it’s a buzz the pair have become addicted to.

“What drives you is still wanting to make people laugh, writing a gag, editing it to make it better. There’s nothing like a laugh. That’s what you get hooked on, But it’s heart attack central.”

Greg added: “It’s real pressure, much more than TV. But it’s a lovely pressure. When we were writing to bring it back to TV, we were having all these conversations about what it needs to be — then you realise it needs to be exactly what it was. That’s what the audience loved about it and that’s what we loved writing.

Still Game Live 2: Bon Voyage is at the SSE Hydro from February 4-16, 2017